The International Olympic Committee said Sunday that the arbitrary tests on boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting that sparked a controversy by wrongly identifying the two fighters as transgender – or even male – were “so flawed that it is impossible to take them into account.”
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams again vigorously defended Algeria’s Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin, and criticized the outlawed International Boxing Association (IBA), which claimed the boxers failed eligibility tests for women’s competition.
The two athletes were “tested” during the 2023 world championships because “there were suspicions against them,” Adams revealed, criticizing the process that singled them out.
“Needless to say, if we start acting on the basis of suspicions against every athlete for any reason, then we’re going down a very bad road,” he said.
Adams rejected the evidence in its entirety
“There are a whole host of reasons why we won’t take them into account,” Adams said. “Partly for confidentiality. Partly, for medical issues. Partly, because there was no basis for the test in the first place. And partly, sharing this data is also against the rules, the international rules.”
“The whole process is flawed,” Adams added. “From the conception of the test, to how it was shared with us and how it was made public, it’s all so flawed that it’s impossible to take it into account.”
Lin and Khelif find themselves at the center of a debate over gender identity and regulations in sports as their critics bring up their declassifications last year after the AIB claimed they did not “meet the necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.”
The governing body, which has enormous influence from Russia, received unprecedented punishment when it was permanently banned from the Olympics last year and has not hosted an Olympic boxing tournament since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.
Adams confirmed that the IOC received a letter from the AIB about Khelif and Lin, as reported by news portal 3 Wire Sports, which, he said, was sent last June. Adams declined to disclose the contents of the letter, but reiterated: “These analyses are not legitimate.
“In fact there was a letter,” he said. “I’m not going to discuss in public the individual intimate details of athletes, which I think I find very distasteful on the part of those who leaked that material. Frankly, it must be awful to be in that position. On top of all the social media harassment these athletes have received.”
IOC president Thomas Bach tried to draw a line on Saturday after several days of controversy surrounding the boxers and what he called a politically motivated “culture war.”
“We have two female boxers who were born women, who were raised as women, who have a passport as women and who have competed for many years as women,” Bach said. “Some people want their own definition of who a woman is.”
Bach linked the furor to what he described as a broader campaign being spearheaded by Russia against the IOC and the Paris games, where there are only 15 Russian athletes competing as neutrals. The IOC and the governing bodies of a number of disciplines have isolated Russia because of their country’s invasion against Ukraine.
“What we have seen from Russia and in particular from the (AIB),” Bach said, “is that they have taken it upon themselves long before these games to conduct a smear campaign against France, against the games, against the IOC.”
